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Monday, July 30, 2012

I was looking for an evening snack last night. It's also blazing hot outside, and I wanted to make something my daughter could help me with, so she had something to do.

The result? Mickey Mouse Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls!

My daughter had a blast making these! These were a breeze to make- and tasted great!

Check out the link for all the info!

Here's what you need-

1 package Nutter Butter cookies

8 oz package of cream cheese

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 package chocolate bark

Also, I must give all of the credit for the chocolate peanut butter balls to this site. There's some very tasty items on there that I hope to make soon!

The only adjustment I made was to make the chocolate peanut butter balls look like Mickey Mouse heads.

The first thing I did was split the cookies in half. I tried to get as much peanut butter on one side of the cookies as possible. Here, my 2 year old daughter liked to lick off any remaining peanut butter left on the cookie.

Next, I tried to use my food processor to finely chop all the cookies- however, it doesn't get much use, and for some reason was not operating correctly. So, out with the rolling pin and a large zip lock bag!

The only problem this created was that the peanut butter stuck to the sides of the bag as I crushed the cookies. It took me a couple minutes to scrap it off with my finger. I don't know if it really was that big of a deal, but I believe in the "No Peanut Butter Left Behind" theory.

Next, I threw in about 6 of the 8 oz of cream cheese, and 1/3 cup peanut butter-I just wanted to make sure the Mickey Mouse Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls had lots of peanut butter flavor. It just took a little mixing- and this is one sticky concoction, so keep at it.

Here's what I ended with- the peanut butter filling.

Here's where my daughter was really able to get involved- the shaping of the Mickey Mouse heads.

It's a challenge- making the right proportion of head size to ear size. Also, don't think you have to make the head too big- remember, these are small snacks!

While I would shape balls, my daughter was singing Disney sing a long songs and making her own Mickey Mouse heads. Really, I would just wait for her to put some down, and then reshape them when she went to the bowl for more. She never noticed, and was having a great time.

This is one of my daughters Mickey Mouse heads- really, not bad for a two year old!

Here's one quick tip- I did NOT attach the head to the ears yet. I simply laid them together, so all the pieces were there. Then I would make another head, 2 ears, and so on. I put them on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

Next, we heated up the chocolate. It took us 5-10 minutes to shape all of the Mickey Mouse heads. Some heads were really good, some not so good- it was ok, they all were going to taste the same! However, the remaining steps are more "adult" steps. Which was completely ok, because my daughter was off playing something else....

Here's where it gets a little messy. I tried using a spoon to dip the chocolate balls, but I ended up just using my fingers. It was too easy to lose the small ears in the chocolate with the spoon. Luckily, the chocolate wasn't too hot- I only put it in my microwave for 1:30. Instead, I just ended up with chocolate fingers.

This is the point where I would play doctor and put Mickey Mouse together. I put dip the peanut butter head in chocolate, place it on the foil, and then dip the peanut butter ears in the chocolate. Then, I just stuck the ears on top of the head. Wa la-Mickey Mouse Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls!

One tip I read was to use a toothpick and "cut" around the chocolate, so you won't have the feet on the bottom of the balls when they dry.

Once I was done, I had filled up two cookie sheets. I place them on a shelf in my refrigerator- it took a little rearranging to fit them in.

Next, you can see the hardened Mickey Mouse Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls.

One more tip- let the Mickey Mouse chocolate peanut butter balls cool overnight. That way, the cream cheese/peanut butter mix will be cold. It tastes much better this way.

These turned out great. They were very easy to make, didn't take a lot of ingredients, and clean up was easy. You definitely don't have to have your own Food Network show to make these. My daughter loved making them, and she went crazy when she saw how they came out!

Next time you're looking for a snack, or something fun to do with your kids, why not try these?

Maybe you could serve them at a Disney themed birthday party, or announce to your family they are going to Disney- either way, they are a very tasty treat!